POLITICO NIGHTLY: The White House message, unmasked

By Renuka Rayasam

Presented by The Mortgage Bankers Association

Matt Wuerker/POLITICO

A NEW KIND OF COVER-UP AT 1600 — Masks are now a must in the West Wing . The new mask requirement, outlined in a White House memo today, also requires daily testing for the majority of West Wing staff and additional teleworking depending on the office, according to two senior administration officials, White House reporter Nancy Cook reports. Your host Slacked with Nancy about the new edict and what it means for President Donald Trump’s message about reopening the economy. This interview has been edited for clarity. What’s the mood at the White House? I wouldn't say White House aides are panicked, but they are very aware that the virus is potentially spreading through the West Wing unchecked. You have to remember: The West Wing is this really cramped and tight space in most parts of it with narrow stairways and offices with low ceilings and staffers who work in cubes. What are they doing to try to check the spread of the virus? The White House, in the last 24 hours, started to take the president's exposure to this MUCH much more seriously. Very few people in the White House were wearing masks, almost no one, and White House aides were being tested once a week. These two confirmed positive cases really ramped up the White House's procedures and I am surprised it took them so long, given the health of the president is at stake. Today, you saw the WH really trying to contain the health risks. This included requiring all staffers to wear masks (something the CDC has been recommending since early April for Americans), daily testing for the majority of West Wing staff and urging a greater share of WH staff to work from home. Will Trump wear a mask? The WH order to staffers to wear masks does not apply to POTUS or the VP so no one expects Trump to start wearing a mask, tho. He has expressed lots of reservations about it in the past — the optics of meeting heads of states and doing business behind the Resolute Desk in a face mask. I've been told by White House advisers that POTUS thinks it makes him look weak; he views it as a political liability and one that undercuts his message to get the economy re-going. This president is so attuned to how situations look — down to the lighting in his TV interviews — so I cannot imagine he will wear a mask anytime soon. Does Trump think any of the people who got coronavirus are weak? I have not heard him say that at all or spoken to any sources who say that. Trump has been pushing for reopening the economy. Do these new infections and protocols change that message? The president really wants to see huge swathes of the economy reopen in states, and aides are very aware that you cannot nudge governors and businesses to reopen and Americans to resume normal life if you can't control the virus inside the West Wing. It makes them nervous: That the reopening message will fall apart this week if there are more confirmed cases among the WH staff. The WH has so many resources, tests, superior health care professionals. If the WH cannot control the spread of the virus, then how can businesses, schools and states control it? That is what worries them. Today's presser was basically supposed to show that the WH has testing under control, but it became much more a split screen moment than the WH intended, with aides wearing masks in the Rose Garden and Trump basically declaring mission accomplished — even as his own WH was ramping up its procedures to keep Pence and Trump safe. Have there been any new measures for White House reporters? Reporters do not go to the White House as often as we used to, and if you do go, you get your temperature checked at the WH gate and at least once before you enter the briefing room. I am doing all of my reporting right now by phone. But lots of WH staff are also teleworking. There are a very limited number of reporters who go to the WH every day now. It just means that you can't swing by the WH to catch up with someone whenever you want, or stop by to ask one of the press officials a question. It changes the nature of the face-to-face coverage. But there is no talk of ending the briefings, and in fact, the new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is briefing much more frequently than her predecessor. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. My calendar just reminded me that in an alternate pandemic free universe I would be watching the Black Pumas right now. Reach out with tips: rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

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From the Health Desk

QUICK STUDY — Hydroxychloroquine, a decades-old malaria medicine touted by the president as a coronavirus treatment, showed no benefit for patients hospitalized in New York, health reporter Sarah Owermohle writes. There was also no noticeable advantage for patients that took the drug paired with the antibiotic azithromycin, according to hotly anticipated research published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association . The researchers analyzed 1,438 Covid-19 patients in the state, but it was not a randomized clinical trial, considered the gold standard in research. The state is also running a randomized trial, but results have not yet been released. The study only analyzed hospitalized patients who were already severely ill. Other research still in the works is focused on mildly ill patients or whether hydroxychloroquine can be used to prevent Covid-19, though there is still no solid evidence to suggest it can. Unsettled — Hospitals are warning they will be slow to restart elective procedures like knee surgeries and colonoscopies without assurances from Congress they won’t get sued by patients and their own workers if they are infected by the coronavirus during those visits, health care reporters Susannah Luthi and Rachel Roubein write. Powerful industry lobbies like the American Hospital Association have gained a sympathetic ear from Republican leaders in Congress. The dispute echoes past fights over tort reform and medical malpractice suits that pitted trial lawyers, unions and consumer groups aligned with Democrats against doctors and other health providers claiming they were swamped by frivolous lawsuits. The issue of liability protections has been a major sticking point in crafting another trillion-dollar-plus coronavirus relief bill aimed primarily at buoying devastated state and local budgets. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have called legal protections for employers “absolutely essential” to striking a deal, arguing that excessive lawsuits could blunt efforts to reopen.

On The Hill

BARGAIN HUNTING — The House won’t return until Friday at the soonest as senior Democrats continue haggling over the details of their latest multitrillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill, Congress reporters Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris write. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had initially hoped to vote on the coronavirus relief measure this week but the legislation isn’t expected to be finished until Tuesday at the earliest, according to multiple senior Democrats and aides with knowledge of the discussions. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has promised to give lawmakers 72 hours notice before they are required to return to Washington, pushing the vote until Friday at the earliest. And, Heather and Burgess Everett write, hopes are fading on Capitol Hill for a deal on the next round of coronavirus relief before an approaching Memorial Day recess, raising the prospect that Congress won’t clinch a new spending agreement until June or beyond. While the Democratic-controlled House is aiming to pass a multitrillion-dollar package as soon as this week without GOP or White House input, the Senate Republican majority has no timeline for delivering its own bill.

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Around the Nation

CHEF’S TABLE — With the mass closure of restaurants, millions of employees, and local suppliers, are out of work. Now, with shutdown measures gradually lifting, many small restaurant owners aren’t sure they will be able to reopen. Your host held a Zoom call with the founding members of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a new lobbying group that came to life just six weeks ago. Initially focused on the Paycheck Protection Program, the group now wants to fix the program, arguing that it favors large franchises and chain restaurants over smaller eateries. We spoke with Tom Colicchio, owner of Crafted Hospitality and “Top Chef” star; Naomi Pomeroy, chef and owner of Beast Restaurant in Portland, Ore.; Kwame Onwuachi, chef at Washington D.C.’s Kith/Kin; and Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation, about pandemic cooking, the future of dining, and what Congress should do next to help independent restaurants. The interview has been edited.

Why do you think the Paycheck Protection Program isn’t helping independent restaurants? Kwame: I had to shut the restaurant down, and it happened overnight. The mayor said we can no longer do dine-in service. I had to call all the staff and speak to them one by one. I’ve closed restaurants before. Nothing felt like sitting across from people and telling them you didn't have answers, and you didn't know when they were coming back. Now we get these funds, and we have to hire back a large percentage of our staff. A lot of them don't want to come back. They're making the same, if not more, on unemployment. The revenue that I would make from doing delivery or takeout won't suffice. I have 76 employees at my restaurant. Then the payback period for eight weeks. You know, it needs to be longer because in eight weeks, I don’t know if I'm going to be open. It puts us in a tough position. We're even thinking about just giving it back at this point. What does the IRC want from Congress? Naomi: Our big ask is a $120 billion dollar stabilization fund that will help support the industry. Every single restaurant owner in this country has to reinvent themselves over the next year or so. We don't know how long this is going to last. With no strings attached? Tom: The strings attached are all the farmers and fishermen and the winemakers and the cheese makers and all the people that we actually support. When you consider that 95 cents on every dollar that comes into a restaurant goes out the door, I would suggest that’s a lot of strings attached. There are many groups competing for additional stimulus money. Why should lawmakers pay attention to the plight of local eateries?

Kwame: This is a bipartisan issue. Everyone has their own favorite restaurant. I have so many people that come into my restaurant that are in Congress on both sides of the aisle. It's something that brings them together. So that's where my optimism lies. What is the restaurant industry going to look like this year? Clare: A recent poll indicated that 80 percent of the restaurant owners were not confident about reopening. If you think about that in real terms, that's four out of five of your favorite local restaurants. Kwame: We're hustlers at the end of the day. Most restaurants are gonna have some sort of mercado aspect to it. We're gonna be doing jams and anything we can sell. In terms of restaurants opening, I think there's gonna be people that are gonna take risks because the rents are gonna be a lot cheaper. Also I think about marginalized people having less opportunities to open up restaurants. Tom: One thing I know, a year from now, whenever we have a cure, we can congregate again. Everyone is going to be tired of cooking their own food, so we're going to be there for you. What happens to the IRC once the pandemic subsides? Naomi: Right now there's no point in talking about long-term fixes. If the house is burning down, it's hard to talk about what color you're gonna paint the bedroom. What does quarantine cooking look like for a professional chef? Naomi: I feel like quarantine has me in this comfort zone. I baked some Japanese milk bread called shokupan yesterday that turned out really well. I'm really fascinated with Japan. I went there like six times last year and there are these little Japanese convenience store sandwiches that everybody knows and loves. That's the bread that goes into making that. It’s been fun, but it’s definitely not friendly on the waistline. Tom: I'm doing a lot of sourdough bread, which is something I taught myself to do just this year. A loaf of bread every other day. I had to get a 50-pound bag of bread flour, because I couldn't find any more bread flour because apparently everyone in the world was making sourdough bread right now. Kwame : I started off, trying to eat really, really clean. Just trying to watch everything that was going into my body, like the amount of carbs, the amount of protein, the amount of fats. It did not last very long. I started eating for comfort and just trying not to abuse that. Whatever I craved, I make it. If I want a mac and cheese. I'd make it. If I wanted a bacon cheeseburger, I would make it. I'm here in the Bronx right now and cooking for 400 people a day. We did jerk chicken. We did fried plantains and coconut rice and beans. I'm passing meals to people with a mask on. It's such a foreign feeling right now.     Ask The Audience Our question for readers this week: What does reopening look like where you live? Snap a photo sometime this week and send it to nightly@politico.com. We’ll share our favorites on Friday. Nightly Number 39 percent The proportion of respondents who said their households were worse off financially than they were a year ago in the latest Federal Reserve survey of consumer expectations . The number marks an increase of nearly 10 percentage points over the previous month. (h/t Katy O’Donnell) A sign requiring a face mask at SpeakEasy Bar & Grill in Newport, R.I. | Maddie Meyer/Getty Images The Global Fight SAME, BUT DIFFERENT — Sweden and New Zealand have opposing approaches to the Covid-19 pandemic, and very different death counts, but nearly identical economic trajectories, Global Translations author Ryan Heath emails. While Sweden aims for “herd immunity” via relatively few social and economic restrictions, New Zealand is focused on (and close to) “elimination” of the virus, via a severe national lockdown. The International Monetary Fund predicts Sweden’s economy will shrink by 6.8 percent in 2020, and New Zealand’s by 7.2 percent. What Sweden and New Zealand share is their status as small, open, high-wage economies. That means each is exposed to global economic headwinds and stuck with high costs when the headwinds hit, while lacking a huge internal market of consumers to get the boat motoring again. Regardless of domestic pandemic policies, the world’s small but rich countries seem set to sink or swim together. For now, they’re all sinking.   JOIN FRIDAY - HOW DOES THE GLOBAL ECONOMY START MOVING AGAIN? The pandemic has caused the global economy to come to a halt, triggering economic crises around the world. What happens next? Join Global Translations author Ryan Heath on Friday at 1 p.m. EDT for a virtual discussion with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on the trade-offs and investments needed to get the global economy moving again, the role that China can be expected to play, and how growing debt and deficits will impact the developing world. Have questions? Submit yours by tweeting it to @POLITICOLive using #AskPOLITICO. REGISTER HERE TO PARTICIPATE.     Parting Words ONE FISH, TWO FISH — The pandemic has kept Europe’s fishing boats at port, which means continued life for fish that otherwise might have ended up on the continent’s dinner tables . It’s already leading fishing lobbies to call for an expanded season next year. France registered a 56 percent drop in the volume of fish caught in March and April compared with the same period in 2019. “Even if fishermen were to work more [in the second half of the year], it is very likely that this year’s catch will be lower than what was foreseen or with what was caught in 2019,” said Claire Ulrich, deputy head of science at the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea. During World War II, the fear of being torpedoed or shot kept fishermen in port for years, leading to a dramatic recovery in fish stocks. Despite the intriguing similarity in conditions, experts warn that it’s too early to tell if the same thing will happen now.   A message from The Mortgage Bankers Association: Individual Needs. Individual Solutions. We understand that mortgage relief is not one-size-fits-all. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many Americans in unique financial situations. That’s why we encourage you to contact your mortgage company if paying your mortgage poses a financial hardship. There are options to help meet your needs. Visit MBA.org/consumerinfo for more information on forbearance options.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam   Follow us

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RSN: FOCUS: Jamil Smith | They Are Giving You Death and Calling It Liberty

 

11 May 20

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FOCUS: Jamil Smith | They Are Giving You Death and Calling It Liberty

Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone
Smith writes: "Since when should dying be the price of freedom? What kind of liberty could be won? And when we hear authority figures saying that we should accept that risk, should we feel liberated? Or just the opposite?"

The reckless Republicans opening America up to a deadly pandemic want us to risk sacrificing our lives for their power

Perhaps if one might answer that question in a certain way if they volunteered for the armed forces. But even then, they risk life and limb for others’ independence, not their own. Certainly, they don’t do so for the fortunes of their commander-in-chief. However, this is what Donald Trump asks of Americans, speaking of them on Tuesday as “warriors” while acknowledging that some will be “badly affected” as the country opens up.” Casualties of an invented war, dying all the same.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIH epidemiologist working alongside the White House, asked an essential question on CNN Monday night. “How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be, some form of normality, sooner rather than later?” Judging by the demand for exponentially more human sacrifice from Trump and many in the Republican Party of late, the number seems unquantifiable. They actually seem to have actually stopped trying to fight it with the required urgency. Releasing a triumphant and militaristic campaign ad Tuesday that paints his virus response as unfailingly effective, Trump all but declared victory over the ongoing pandemic. He clearly wants to look like a wartime president, and a winning one. He is neither.

In less than three months, COVID-19 has killed more than 62,000 people inside the the United States. The White House expects the disease will kill up to 3,000 people in the U.S. daily by June 1. That’s more than a 9/11, every single day. The model projects that more than 134,000 total will die, per a New York Times report on Monday. Less than three months after the first fatality, we have seen macabre reports of bodies stacked in U-Hauls and warehouses and cities burying unclaimed dead in local parks. But despite the federal government itself buying 100,000 body bags last week, White House advisers like Steven Moore appear more concerned about dead companies.

Speaking about businesses closed due to stay-at-home protocols throughout the United States Moore, a member of Trump’s council on “reopening” the country, told Politico on Monday that “if they stay closed for another month, month and a half, you’re gonna have body bags of businesses that will never recover.” Quite the word choice.

The nation has no business opening up right now and most Americans are deeply wary of it, but several of Trump’s fellow Republicans have now relaxed or ended public safety protections in their states. Governors from Georgia to Missouri to Texas abandoned or declined to extend shelter-in-place orders, allowing both local customers and COVID-19 to enter their businesses. Sure enough, sharp spikes in infection rates accompanied: The Daily Beast‘s Olivia Messer reported on Tuesday that even Texas governor Greg Abbott knew what he was doing would lead to greater transmission of the disease. He did it anyway. saying on a private call that “the goal never has been to get transmission down to zero.”

Then there was Chris Christie, who during Hurricane Sandy eight years ago managed to talk like a government official interested in protecting people. Now, he talks like someone interested in coming to Donald Trump’s rescue. “Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can — but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?” he asked recently. Just off the top of my head, Chris: preventing premature death? Then anchor Dana Bash asked Christie whether Americans will need to swallow that projected 3,000-per day death toll in June. The bridge traffic aficionado told her, “They’re gonna have to.”

Death overtakes us all at some point. However, we’re now being told to numb ourselves to mass casualties and the increased possibility of our own COVID-19 infections in order help a president win re-election. Or to help some stocks rally, or even save a business from folding. That is what is happening here. “If a majority believe that we got through this, they’re not afraid anymore about their health, the health of their family and they feel like the health of the economy is heading in the right direction, then I think he’s in good shape,” former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker recently told McClatchy. “If they have doubts on either or both of those, then I think it becomes really, really tough.”

The Republican rush to “reopen” is projecting a simulacrum of the American “normal” that existed before the pandemic. The genuine article needed improvement, seeing as the pandemic has revealed the fragility of our systems in health care, education, tech, criminal justice, and throughout our federal government supply infrastructure, just to name a few. And rather than noting how it has sought to unbalance and defund many of the very systems that have proven deficient during this crisis, the GOP has kept behaving as if the coronavirus’ calamities are part of some divine plan. As such, before they ever “reopened” a single state, Republicans were demanding that we willingly embrace a lesser life before we bow out early.

Many cultish movements have deadly culminations, so it only seems natural that some of Trump’s most avid fans might be willing not merely to use the fiction of what they understand as freedom, risking their health for Dear Leader. But whether or not that is true, Republicans offer this fraudulent version of liberty because their true goal, plutocracy, is the diametrical opposite of freedom. It is a life lived to spite other lives, and often take advantage of them. They have profited from the vulnerable, whose literal freedoms are limited in various ways that, at times, overlap: communities of color, incarcerated populations, service workers, the homeless, disabled people, and others for whom liberals regularly advocate.

The right has built a thin veneer that looks like independence and freedom, but the pandemic has stripped away that myth in a matter of weeks. We can love our country enough to want to build it stronger than it was before, not paint some shoddy lacquer over top of it and call it brand new again. Why should we lay our lives down for a system this fragile and rotten, and for people this desperate?

This phase of the pandemic won’t be over until there is, at least, sufficient testing, contact tracing, and eventually, one day, a vaccine or treatment that everyone in the world can access. That won’t happen with this president. He simply won’t do it. It isn’t in his interest to make it happen. He doesn’t have adequate training in the job to accomplish it, nor does his party have any interest in helping him do it. He’d rather have us leave the house before it’s safe to go to restaurants, malls, and nail salons, just so he can lie about America being all the way back. Never mind the lady in plastic doing your nails, the bodies in the moving trucks, or the mass graves in the public park.

 
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Republicans have already decided Trump is going to lose

Michael Barrett shared a link.

Republicans have already decided Trump is going to lose
Paul Waldman

Come with me to a fantasy land where President Trump and his aides and allies have a sensible view of the political challenge he now confronts.

Between the pandemic and a horrific economic crisis, they realize that Trump cannot be reelected without heroic measures. So not only do they stand up the kind of monumental testing and tracing effort that enabled countries such as South Korea to contain the coronavirus, they also throw everything they can at the economy.

Monthly checks to every family, payroll support to every business, hundreds of billions to prop up state governments crushed by the crisis, a massive new infrastructure plan — whatever it is, they’ll spend it. With interest rates bottomed out and a worldwide flight of capital to secure investments, the United States can borrow money basically for free.

And as every conservative knows, if you’re worried about deficits, you want a thriving economy. Getting that economy back on its feet as quickly and strongly as possible will not only bring down the deficit over the long term, it’s also the only thing that will avoid a political disaster in November. So spend, spend, spend.

In our fantasy land, that’s what every Republican would want to do right now. But it’s not. And the fact that Republicans don’t want to do this raises the possibility that at least some of them are starting to view Trump as a lost cause.

So some White House advisers are getting worried about the deficit again and are contemplating cuts for the near future:

While no one in the administration is advocating immediate cuts, the unease among senior Trump advisers about federal spending comes as the White House halts talks with Congress on additional emergency measures to rescue a U.S. economy facing its worst crisis in generations.

Some White House officials have gone as far as exploring policies such as automatic spending cuts as the economy improves, or prepaying Social Security benefits to workers before they become eligible, although these measures are unlikely to advance given the political stakes, said these officials and advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of internal deliberations.

Despite the urgent need for more action, Republicans are in no hurry to pass another rescue package, leaving it to House Democrats to figure out what the economy needs. What you get from the Republican side is mostly resignation. The government has done what it can, they say, and now we just need to remove the stay-at-home orders and let the economy heal itself.

You can explain Trump’s own lack of interest in more spending by the fact that he has no idea what’s good for him and seems to think that if he puts on a show about how great the economy is doing, he can make it a reality. But other Republicans are not so deluded.

And now with each passing day, the idea that the economy is going to come roaring back in a few months looks less and less plausible. Not only are we nowhere near gaining control of the virus — the only thing that will allow us to “reopen” — but the damage that has already been done will persist for years.

The coronavirus pandemic is too serious to let the president hold freewheeling press briefings in real time, says Post media critic Erik Wemple. (Joshua Carroll, Erik Wemple/The Washington Post)
We won’t be able to turn the economy back on like a light switch. There are untold numbers of businesses that can hang on for a few weeks or months after their customers disappeared, but many have already closed their doors or will soon. There are ripple effects across the economy, in sectors such as real estate and energy. We don’t know how long it will be until people feel comfortable flying and going to movies and eating out — but if you think it’ll all happen in the next couple of months, you’re almost certainly fooling yourself.

This is something that Republicans, like everyone else, are coming to understand. So some of them may be looking ahead to when Trump is no longer president.

That means, perhaps above all, resuming the deficit fear-mongering that was such an effective tool to hamstring Barack Obama’s presidency. It also means adjusting their policy and spending agenda to the defensive. They aren’t bothering to talk much about new tax cuts or anything else they’d like to pass. Instead, the focus is shifting to cutbacks and constraints. “Automatic spending cuts as the economy improves” is something a Republican would want only if there’s a Democrat in the White House. It shows that that’s precisely what at least some of them are anticipating.

Meanwhile, Republicans are encouraging and amplifying the still-small movement to defy stay-at-home orders, with all the same deranged rhetoric about “tyranny” that we heard in 2009 when conservatives rose up in rage at Obama. Any work they do now will make it easier to ramp up the new version of the tea party if Joe Biden wins.

The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us.

And as for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he’s nothing if not practical. If you think Trump’s chances of reelection are dwindling, why would you try to save the economy now? Imagine if you passed measures that made the recovery easier but Trump lost anyway. Then Biden wouldn’t have such a hard time, and Republicans getting a huge backlash win in 2022 would be less likely. Better to keep everyone miserable for a couple more years. McConnell can just confirm as many hard-right judges as possible between now and January, and consider his work done.

It’s not that there’s no sincere sentiment underneath the Republican reticence to do too much to save the economy. Republicans are genuinely fearful that people will be too thankful if government helps them too much and that the crisis will make the passage of stronger safety-net programs more likely in the future.

But if you thought Trump could still win, your best move would be to give the economy the biggest short-term boost possible with massive government spending, then worry about cutting it back later. Doing nothing now, even if you’re planning to promote cuts in a year or two, suggests only that you think the Trump presidency is all but a lost cause.

Instead of pulling out all the stops to save the economy, Republicans are preparing for life under President Biden.

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Opinion | Republicans have already decided Trump is going to lose

Instead of pulling out all the stops to save the